You’ve worked hard to make your pest company stand out from the rest. You’ve gone above and beyond to provide outstanding services, offer exciting deals, and much more. None of that matters, however, if nobody ever finds your company.
A proper SEO strategy is critical if you want to make sure you reach as many people as possible. Marketers use all sorts of different methods to build SEO — including creating press releases.
Do press releases help SEO? The short answer is “yes,” though only if you use them properly. At Relentless Digital, we specialize in SEO for pest control companies and can help you learn more about how to use press releases to improve your SEO efforts.
What Is a Press Release?
A press release is a way to attract the attention of journalists, news outlets, press release websites, social media channels, and other individuals across the web.
When creating a press release, an individual creates a succinct article that highlights some sort of major event related to their company. This can include:
- Announcing an upcoming event or contest
- Talking about new services or products
- Responding to major criticism about the company
- Explaining research findings from a study conducted by the company
The company then sends this article out to a press release distribution service, with the ultimate goal of attracting media coverage and getting them to spread the word about the release.
The History of Press Release SEO
While press releases were originally just meant to attract the attention of PR professionals and journalists, marketing professionals saw an opportunity.
Many things have changed in the digital age. Business owners have had to adapt, going from simply putting ads in the paper or on TV to creating websites and competing against other businesses to be seen. If you want to make it, you have to make sure that people can find your website.
Implementing SEO is a critical part of that process. Search engine optimization (SEO) aims to help businesses rank on search engines. The higher you are in the search rankings, the more likely people are to see your site.
Backlinks for SEO
Websites like Google use several different factors to determine how your website ranks in the search results — and one of those is backlinks.
Search engines want to provide people with reliable information, and if other websites link back to yours, there’s a greater likelihood that you’re a credible source. Because of this, Google will boost your search rankings, helping more people see your site.
Generating quality links, however, can sometimes feel difficult. Links happen naturally, and you can’t always control whether someone includes one on their site.
That’s where press releases came in.
Press Releases as Backlink Tools
SEO specialists quickly realized that press releases were prime real estate for generating high-quality backlinks. If another site covered the press release, they’d link back to the company’s site. Because many of these sites were news sites, it was an effective way to generate links from credible sources.
While a powerful way to boost SEO at first, it didn’t last. Companies started overusing press release links, creating ones for even the smallest bits of news and sending them out to as many distributors as possible in the hopes that it’d generate more links. Google caught wind of the problem and ended up penalizing people who fraudulently used press releases to generate backlinks.
Now, many sources that cite press releases use “nofollow links” — that is, links that won’t actually lead back to the source. This hampers their effectiveness in promoting SEO.
In addition, according to Google’s John Mueller, the search engine tends to ignore links from press releases; in fact, press releases are one of the leading causes of link-based website penalties.
How Can You Use an Optimized Press Release To Boost Your SEO Rankings?
The outlook of press release SEO may seem pretty bleak. You want to make sure your SEO efforts effectively promote your pest control company, and if press releases can’t do what they used to, it may seem better to focus your efforts elsewhere.
But for all the concerns surrounding backlinks, an SEO press release is still relevant today — just in a different way than people may expect.
So, how do press releases help SEO if they’re no longer useful for generating backlinks? Mostly, they help indirectly by boosting awareness about your company or services.
Press releases have always been an excellent way to spread news, and they can serve that purpose in the modern age. If you have a compelling press release, a journalist might write about it. This can be a great way to boost brand visibility, increase referral traffic, and more.
In addition, a press release can drive people to your site; if it’s well-built, it will encourage people to remain on it or even share pages. Google and other search engines will register this extra traffic, which can help boost your rankings.
Press releases can also boost your SEO rankings in other indirect ways. For example, say that there’s a rumor going around that your company acts dishonestly. This can negatively affect your reputation and lower your ranking. You could put out a press release to counteract the claim, which can help salvage the situation.
In addition, press releases help with indexing. Since search engines crawl news sites relatively regularly, they’ll likely index any featured press releases much quicker. This, in turn, means you have a chance to get backlinks and referrals sooner than otherwise expected.
Of course, you can also use press releases as an excuse to create website content that strategically includes keywords, boosting your rankings that way.
Tips for Creating a Strong Press Release
Press releases can be incredibly beneficial for your company, but you need to make sure you’re using them properly. If you want to use press releases to help SEO, we’ve collected some tips to help you create an optimized press release that will effectively drive traffic to your site.
Consider Your Purpose for Creating a Press Release
Before you actually create a press release, you need to determine why you want to release one. Understanding your goals can help you optimize your press release and get the most mileage out of it.
Take the time to think about what you’re writing a press release for. Do you hope to rank for some long-tail keywords? Are you trying to spread news to an existing audience or a new one? Do you want to spread news about an event? Answering questions such as this can help you determine how to proceed.
Cover a Newsworthy Event
One of the biggest purposes of creating a press release is to bring something to the media’s attention. Because of this, you want to make sure that whatever you’re sharing is attention-grabbing.
Before you write your press release, take the time to consider what news you’re sharing. Make sure your press release is really covering a newsworthy event for better media exposure.
Say, for example, that you just hired a new employee. While this might be exciting for your company, it probably isn’t that notable to most news outlets. Even if they see the press release, they may pass it over for more exciting stories.
Now, say instead that a member of your team helped to develop a new piece of technology that makes pest control more efficient. This would be a particularly noteworthy achievement, and would be much more likely to catch the media’s attention.
Major events, brand-new products and services, and responses to criticism can all be newsworthy events. Save the press releases for these, and avoid writing about the everyday minutia of running your company.
Keep It Short and Sweet
Press releases should get straight to the point. The idea is that they should present the information you want to get across with very little fluff. If the press release is too long, the reader might miss the important parts or lose interest, turning instead to other newsworthy stories.
Sometimes, you might have a lot to say about a particular event; if so, try and save it for a blog post instead. For press releases, focus on the most important parts. Keep it to roughly 400 to 500 words at the most.
Before writing the copy, take the time to home in on the most important bits, then make sure that they’re presented front and center.
Make Sure It’s Well-Written and Easy To Read
Length isn’t the only thing that could create low-quality press releases; if the copy isn’t well-written or accessible, a journalist may pass over it entirely.
Generally speaking, a press release should read like a news story. It should use succinct, clear copy without too much professional jargon. You’d want to write the copy in third person and make sure to edit carefully to check for grammatical errors. By double-checking these, you can increase the likelihood of someone featuring your press release.
Consider Adding Visual Content
If you really want to go the extra mile, try adding other interesting media to your press release. Visuals are an excellent way to attract attention and boost engagement. You might be able to include:
- Graphs or charts: Do you have statistics that could help you emphasize your point? Plot them on a graph or chart, then include them with your press release for additional appeal.
- Infographics: Infographics are a great way to provide additional information to an otherwise short press release. These useful visuals add illustrations to make text more interesting, helping catch the eye and encouraging readers to absorb the information.
- Videos: Do you have footage of a company event from previous years? Would you really like to highlight a new service your pest control company offers? Create a video to supplement your press release and provide additional information.
Create an Attention-Grabbing Headline
You’ve made sure you have a newsworthy story, went above and beyond to create professional copy, and even added visual media. That said, that might not matter if no one looks at your press release in the first place.
A good press release headline is one of the best ways to grab people’s attention. Highlight the most interesting bits of the press release and put them front and center in the headline.
For example, say that your company aims to host a gathering with other experts in the industry. Think about what makes this event unique. Is it going to be a particularly large event? Are very notable individuals going to be there? Is there some sort of research or technology people plan to present? Is there something about your company you could use to leverage attention?
Take what information you can and turn it into something that will draw readers in.
Make Sure It Reaches the Right Media Outlets
It’s tempting to send press releases to as many media outlets as possible. After all, the more journalists it reaches, the more likely it will be that someone will pick up the press release — right?
Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Sending it to too many media outlets may make them believe it’s spam, which can prevent them from paying attention to it at all.
Proper press release distribution requires a bit of thinking. Instead of sending the press release to countless places, take the time to be strategic about it.
Consider who would be most interested in your press release. Who is your target audience? Does the journalist provide media coverage in your local area? Do they write about your field or an unrelated one? Make sure you do your research before distributing press releases and only share your press release with the most interested parties.
Follow SEO Best Practices
While a press release may not gain as many backlinks as it used to, it can still draw in potential customers, provided you follow all SEO best practices. A great press release will use relevant keywords, include embedded links with appropriate anchor text, and use an appropriate title tag, among other things.
Consider your target audience and what they might use for search terms. From there, use the proper SEO tools and best practices to generate keyword ideas, use the proper anchor text to link to relevant pages, and more.
The Final Verdict: Do Press Releases Help SEO?
Press releases can be incredibly beneficial. They’re a great way to increase brand recognition, boost your online reputation, and improve local SEO, among other things.
Unfortunately, companies began abusing them, causing Google’s John Mueller to decide to largely ignore press release links in search engine rankings. In addition, many sites have turned the links into “nofollow links,” which lowers the SEO benefits.
That said, press releases can still be incredibly useful in helping with SEO indirectly. Press releases can help you build your reputation, attract attention, and drive traffic back to your site. They can even help you get your content indexed more quickly.
So, do press releases help SEO? Yes, they do, just not in the way you’d usually expect.
Press releases and SEO can sometimes be a complicated topic — and they’re only one small part of a larger content marketing strategy. At Relentless Digital, we can help you make sense of these tools and other strategies. Let us help your pest control company maximize SEO by creating content, boosting your brand’s visibility, engaging in social media marketing, creating relevant anchor text for links, and more.
Enhance your digital marketing efforts and enjoy SEO success. Book a strategy call today to learn more about how to boost SEO.
